Improvement in apparatus for carbureting air



Umano STATES PATENT Ormea.

OLIVER P. DRAKE, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN APPARATUS FOR CARBURETNG AIR.

lSpecification forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 54,132, dated April 24, 1866.

To all whom it may concern.-

Beit known that I, OLIVER P. BRAKE, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improved Air-CarburetingApparatus5 and I do hereby declare the same to be fully described in the following specification and represented in the accompanying drawings, of which- Figures l and 2 are end elevations, and Fig. 3 a vertical section, of it, the said figures not exhibiting the supply cistern, which, in its due relation to the vaporizer of the apparatus, is represented in Fig. 4, which shows an end elevation of the air-forcin g apparatus, together with a transverse section of the vaporizer and the said supply-cistern. Fig. 5 is a horizontal section of the air-forcing apparatus/ffr Fig. 6 is a view of the valve-plate constituting the top of the air-forcingapparatus. Fig.`7 is a section of one of the valve-chests and the annular air! passage of the said valve-plate.

The air-forcing portion of the above-mentioned air-carbureting apparatus is of a peculiar construction, and may be thus described: A is a hollow drum, provided with a circular opening, a, in its bottom and another opening, b, in its top, and having its axis arranged vertically. This drum, by means of legs coco, is supported 0n two separate vaporizers, B B', which are arranged in one horizontal plane with each other and a supply-tank, O. The two vaporizers are connected by a pipe, B, (see Fig. 4,) leading from the bottom of one to that of the other, and they are also connected with the supply-tank by another such pipe, E, which leads from the. lower part of the second vaporizer, B', to that of the supply-tank' C, the. saine being so that a hydrocarbon liquid, when in the tank, may freely flow therefrom into the vaporizers and stand at the same level therein as it may in the tank. A pipe, d, leads from the tank to and opens into an air-pipe, e, to be hereinafter described,the object of the pipe d being to admit air into the gasoline or hydrocarbon tank, in order that there may be a free ilowage of the liquid therefrom.

Within the lower part of the drum A there is an annular air-passage, f, and there is also another such passage, g, at the upper end of the drum and encircling it. A series of separate chambers, k h, are formed against the inner periphery of the drum, and directly over the air-passagef, which should have an opeil ing, z', leading through its bottom, in order to allow air to freely enter the said passage.

The inner side,k, of each chamber h is to be composed of' an air-tight flexible sheet-such as india rubber cloth, for instance-Which should be attached to a plate, m.' To each of the said plates m one ot' a series of pitmen or rods, a, is jointed, the said rods being connected with or jointed to an annulus, o, which encompasses the wrist of a bell-crank, p, of an upright shaft, D, arranged in the axis of the drum A, in manner as represented in Fig. 3. Each of such chambers h is, in fact, a bellows, which is put in action by the shaft D while in revolution. There should be avalveopening andvalve thereto at the bottom of each of the said bellows, the same being as shown at g in Fig. 3. Another such valve and opening should be arranged at the top of each bellows, the same being as shown at r in Fig. 7, in which the valve is exhibited, as placed within a chest, s, which opens into the annular passage g. In Fig. 6 the arrangement of the several valve-chests s is exhibited.

By means of a pipe, t, (see Figs. 1 and 3,) the passage g communicates with an aerometer, E, arranged above the air-forcing apparatus and separated from it by an intervening cylindrical space, F. (See Fig. 3.)

The cap a of the aerometeris ot' an air-tight flexible material, such as a sheet of india-rubber, and is secured at its outer edge to the sides of the aerometer, while at its middle itis connected to a metallic plate, e, provided with a tubular hub, fw, to encompass and slide vertically on a standard, m, erected on the bottom of the aerometer. An annulus, y, surrounding the upper part of the said hub w, rests on a helical spring, z, which also encircles such hub and rests on a shoulder making part of it. A forked arm, a', extending from a horizontalshaft, b', arranged as shown in the drawings, rests on the top of the annulus y. Another arm, c', provided with a weight, d', at its lower end, extends downward from the shaft b', as shown in Figs. 2 and 4.

The object of the colniterbalancing appara tus, composed of the spring z, annulus y, arm

a', shaft b', arm c', and weight d', applied to the head or plate c of the exible top of the aerometer, is to prevent the cap-plate of such top from being thrown up too high by the pressure of the air within the aerometer, the flexible top always requiring to be in such a state as to admit of its plate being moved either up or down. Besides this the counterbalancing apparatus serves to equalize the pressure of the gas or carbureted air at the burners, or, in other words, it operates to maintain the flame of each burner steady or at a.. constant height.

The shaft l) is provided with a beveled pinion, c', which engages with a beveled gear, f' fixed on a shaft, g', which is to be supplied with a suitable means of putting it in constant revolution while it may be necessary to keep the apparatus in operation.

Instead of the valve-openings and valves q r and valve-chest s, applied to each bellows in manner as hereinbefore described, such bellows may be provided with a valve operated automatically, the same being shown in Figs. 3 and 6, in which h' denotes the said valve, which is a box open at bot-tom and fixed to a lever turning on a fulcrum, i'. This valve opcrates with two ports, k' Z', (shown in Fig. 3,) and is intended to move on and oii' one ot' 1them-viz., that one which leads out ofthe belows.

The shorter arm ofthe lever of the boxvalve has a pin, g', extended upward from it, which enters the forked arm of another lever, m', whose other arm works with a springcatch, n', extended from the upper head of the drum A.

Two arms, o' p', oi' different lengths, are projected from the top of the shaft D in manner as shown in Figs. 3 and 6, each being so formed as to depress the spring-catch n while passing over it, in order to release the lever m'. During its revolution the longer arm, p', will so act against the pin g' as to move the valve 0E the port 7c', whereby air will be allowed to enter the bellows. The arm o', while passing the springlatch, will, by its action against the lever m', cause the valve to be moved back or over the two ports 7s' l', in order that air previously drawn into the bellows may be expelled therefrom through such portsv and the valve and into the passage g, from whence such air will Iiow into the aerometer E. From the aerometer the air passes, by a pipe, r', (see Fig; l.) into a valve-case or flame-regulator, s', and from thence,by a pipe, c, into the vaporizer B'. This dame-regulator forms no part of my present invention, it containing a valve which is suspended from a iiexible disk forming the top of the case.

A pipe, t', opens out of and runs horizontally from the pipe c and over the two vaporizers B' B', and opens into a vertical dischargepipe, u', leading out of the vaporizer B. There are two stop-cocks, e' w', arranged in the pipe t', and between them are three vertical pipes, a." y' z', which open out of and lead down from the pipe t'. The pipe a." opens into the discharging end of the vaporizer B'. The pipe y' leads out of the receiving-extremity of the vaporizer B. The pipe z' leads out of the middle of the tortuous passage of the said vaporizerB, it beingunderstood that each of such vaporizers, by means of partitions duly arranged within it, has a tortuous or serpentine passage formed in it, whereby air, when driven into the vaporizer, is made to course through such passage against absorbent surfaces or materials impregnated-with a liquid hydrocarbon.

Finally, such air duly carbureted passes to the burner or burners by means of the pipe u'.

By closing the stop-cocks o', w', and c2 and opening the stop-cocks a? b2, the air to be carbureted will be made to iiow through the vaporizer B', thence through the pipe a2' and into the pipe t', thence down the pipe y', and into and through the entire circuit ot' the vaporizer B. But in case it may be desirable to have the air forced through the vaporizer B without first going through the vaporizer B', we have only to close the cocks a2, c2, and 'w' and open the cocks c' and b2. So, in case it may be desirable to have the air go through but haltof thevaporizer B, we can accomplish such provided we close the cocks c2, b2, and w' and open the cocks lv' and c2. Again, in case we may desire to cause the air to go through one vaporizerl and but halt of the other, we have only to close the cocks w' and b2 and open the cocks o', a2, and c2. By opening the cocks o' and w' the air will pass into the pipe u' without going throughl the vaporizers.

From the above it will be seen that by having one or more vaporizers and a system of pipes, t' w' y' z', provided with stop-cocks o', 662,1?, c2, and to', we are enabled to accomplish results as set forth-that is, to use one or both vaporizers at once, or one and a portion of the other, or only such portion of the other. 1

Therefore I claim a-s my inventionl. The combination as well as the arrangement of one or more vaporizers, B' B, their induction and eduction pipes e u', and a system of pipes, t'- fr' y' z', and stop-cocks so arranged as to enable the air to be driven either through the whole of such vaporizer or vaporizers, or a portion or portions thereof.

2. The improved air-forcin g apparatus, composed of the drum A and the series of iiexile sheets k, as explained, and having mechanism, substantially as described, for operating them by means of a cranked shaft, suoli mechanism being the annulus 0 (applied to the crank p) and the series of rods u n, connecting such annulus with the movable plates m m of the several bellows. l

3. The improved iiexile-top aerometer E, having the cap w and guide x, combined and arranged with its disk 'u and lexile top u, as specified.

4. The combination as well as the arrangement of the air-forcing apparatus, the annular channel g, and the aerometer E.

8. The arrangement of the supply-tank C and its communicating-pipe E with the vaporizer B. v

9. The combination of the air-pipe d with the air-forcing apparatus, or its pipe e, and the suppl'ytank C, arranged and connected with the vaporizer, as set forth.

OLIVER P. BRAKE.

Witnesses:

R. H. EDDY, F. P. HALE, Jr. 

